V/A - Hope

[abasio]

 

Artist: Various

Title: Hope

Label: Fluid Audio

Released: 8th June 2009

Style: IDM, Downtempo, Ambient

 

Tracklist

 

1 Ishq – Forever 10:41

2 Snakestyle – Hopeful 6:28

3 Field Rotation – Regenzeit 8:18

4 James Murray – Fingersand 7:10

5 Iambic – Turn The Seasons 2:17

6 Bersarin Quartett – Was Uns Bleibt 4:45

7 Playb – Acoustics Of The Piano (Plucked) 6:33

8 Halogen – Sunriser 5:21

9 Ben Beiny – Start Again 5:00

10 Iambic – Flags 4:10

11 Digitonal – We Three 4:56

12 Hol Baumann – Time To Change 5:01

13 Ben Beiny – A Part Of You (Digipak Bonus) 2:42

 

Fluid Audio is a new record label and they say that they will be focusing on limited edition and varied format releases from a growing roster of artists, composers, and producers. That every release from the label will be focusing on selected themes with the emphasis on pushing the artists to their creative limits, raising the standards in electro-acoustic sounds. They also say the will be creating new diverse styles, never standing still, and making sure that the listener is given access to frequencies that push boundaries within the creative process of electro-acoustic manipulation. Quite a boast from a new untested record label and it could be something that is difficult to live up to.

 

There debut release Hope though goes a long way in my opinion to back up this audacious claim. Hope’s theme is, as you might have already guessed, Hope! The notes in the booklet tucked into sleeve of the digipak tells us about the Toybox charity and there mission to bring hope to disadvantaged children, outlines their vision and informs of the fact that there are millions of children living on the street with short life expectancies. Also 50% of the sales (not profits) will go to the Toybox charity. This is all stirring stuff but there have been many compilations out in the past that have been for a good cause but have been utter garbage. That is not the case here however. Here is a compilation that I would want to buy even if the MO was to take all the money for themselves and buy big expensive cars to crash into walls with. Looking at the tracklist I saw many artists I love and many unknown to me. The artist I knew already didn’t let me down & the new-to-me artists surprised me in a good way. The music here is just top notch, brilliantly produced and serenely played. It is soft and glitchy at times, ambient and beaty at others. It goes through genres like natural ambient, downbeat, IDM and post rock. There is nothing clichéd here, no preachy samples or cheesy messages in the music. The whole charity message is left in the booklet and promo speech leaving the music to speak for itself and it speaks very well.

 

The CD starts off with Ishq – Forever and this track is worth the money alone. This is one of the best Ishq tracks I have ever heard despite a slightly rocky start. It is soft and beautiful with floating and haunting melodies. The vocal makes me feel very nostalgic but I can’t quite put my finger on what it reminds me off. It puts me in mind of some fantasy epic with some older than the Earth goddess talking to me in my hour of need. A great track to start the compilation, something very special indeed.

 

Starting with such an epic track can be risky if the succeeding tracks are not up to par with it. Have no fear though because although Forever remains my favourite track on the CD the tracks that follow it are still amazing and the fact that they are so diverse yet so in keeping with each other makes it feel even better. The next three tracks sound like some very high quality Ultimae style ambient. Regenzeit by Field Rotation was an excellent surprise. I had never heard much from Field Rotation before but after this beautifully haunting melancholic track I will definitely be on the look out for more Field Rotation stuff. James Murray – Fingersand also has great melancholic melodies equal to the tracks on his album Where Edges Meet.

 

After this we hit a more post rock kind of stage, a short track Turn The Seasons by Iambic sounds has great soulful piano melodies and Was Uns Bleibt by Bersarin Quartet has heavy but slow and spaced out rock beats. This is not usually the sort of music I’d rush out and buy but hearing it hear I wonder why I am in that point of view. I feel like my musical horizons are too narrow and that I might be missing out on a lot of good music. Then I realise that it would be impossible to keep up with all the music I might think is amazing and I must just hope that great stuff like this will find its way to me more in the future.

 

Acoustics of the piano (plucked) by Playb has no piano in it which is surprising but it does however have great melodies played on instruments I can’t quite figure out what they are. They sound like a magical harp made of gold & played by some enchanted elf queen alone in a tower in a kingdom run by trolls, it sounds very fairy tale like, in a Grimm way. Keeping in a similar feel but an altogether different style is Halogen – Sunriser really nice warm melodies and glitchy beats create a happy ending feel for our lonely queen locked in a tower.

 

Start Again by Ben Beiny is a return to the Piano melodies and another stand out track for me. A simple sad piano melody is played with some dark urban textures in the background. Some nice shuffling beats come in with a slight post rock feel to it which is continued with Iambic’s second offering Flags which is longer than the previous track and has an advert type feel to it. We Three by Diagonal & Time To Change by Hol Baumann round off the compilation in fine style. They are all nice bassy numbers with soft recurring melodies and cool atmospheres. We Three has some great strings in it while Time To Change sounds like all the tracks on Baumann’s album. A Part Of You by Ben Beiny feels more like an epilogue to the compilation. It feels like a ray of acoustic hope in the melancholy of the preceding tracks.

 

So a damn fine compilation, not just a bunch of tracks thrown together for a good cause, something that has been thought about and lovingly compiled. Fans of downtempo electronica should check this out, it’s a great compilation and it’s for a good cause. I am very happy I bought it, one of the albums of the year for me.

 

www.fluidaudio.co.uk

www.toyboxcharity.org.uk

[Fluid]

Wow!

 

Never noticed this review until today.

 

Much appreciated,

 

Dan (Fluid Audio)

[rino]

Hold it right there, that is one hell of a fine cover! It actually looks good enough that I'd enlarge it, frame it and nail it up above my work desk.

Judging by your review, this one seems worth getting, very much so, and a big plus is that from what I've read, there are no shanti baba psybient samples and mantra prayers here, are there?

 

Mmmm, this just might be next purchase. I haven't bought any anti-abbandoned moist and rusty warehouses music since what seems eternity now. Gotta find this, soon.

[abasio]

That's exactly right, no shanti baba psychill clichés in sight

[Yard Hippie]

Absolutely love this comp. It didn't hit me immediately but now that I've listened to it a good few times it just grasps me by the throat and pulls me under it's spell. Very nice mood music

 

In some ways it's a shame this album sends proceeds to charity as it seems to be getting overlooked as some sort of cheap charity trick; don't fall into this mental trap, it's truly one of the best releases I've heard all year.